Out Of Place (Face the Music Book 2) (7 page)

It had really been too long since she’d been this close to a guy she was attracted to. She took a breath,
slow down
. The attraction was skin deep at the moment and may not be mutual.

The surfboard dripped onto the towel. It wouldn’t be dry for long. She perched on the edge of the bumper, glad the towel was there to stop the metal from burning her butt or the backs of her thighs. It did mean that she had to turn or he was in her blind spot. She solved the problem by sitting at an angle and leaning against the edge of the car. Lucky she was wearing black today.

He took the lid off the coffee and put it on the towel before taking a drink. “I was going to go in.”

“I was done, and I saw you out here.” Great, now she’d confessed to watching him.

He smiled as though it didn’t bother him. “There’s a great view, and much better surf than yesterday.”

She nodded and sipped her drink. She really didn’t need the extra caffeine, her heart was already beating too fast—which wasn’t the coffee’s fault. Nerves were getting the best of her. She had to say something instead of letting the silence grow and get weird.

“You’re here every day?” Was that too stalkerish or just interested enough?

“No. As much as I can while I can.”

“Ah. Your mysterious job.” What did he do that took him over east? She was more than a little curious. Who was Ed when he wasn’t surfing?

He looked at her for a moment as if trying to decide what to say. “I work in the music industry. I have to travel. The hours are great, but the pay is shit.” He wrapped his knuckles on the roof of his car. “As you can tell.”

Was that code for being a roadie or something? She had no idea and he wasn’t expanding. She watched him for a moment, glad that her sunnies hid some of where her gaze went. He seemed in no rush to cover up.

It would be nice to be that comfortable in her skin. Had she ever been? She didn’t think so. There had always the worry about her weight, and breast size and hair. Not being with anyone and not looking had meant that she’d stopped thinking about some of that stuff, plus she’d had bigger concerns.

“So you do it for love?” That would be the perfect job. As much as she liked numbers, it wasn’t the kind of thing that got people excited.

“For the moment.” But there was a serious look in his eyes, a hunger. He had big plans. She was tempted to ask more, but how far could she press before it became rude? “What about you? Waitress or owner?”

She laughed. It bubbled up out of nowhere. That he’d considered her the owner was amusing. “Neither. Bookkeeper.”

“Accountant?”

She nodded. Cue mood kill and snoring.

“My dad tried to convince me to do accountancy at uni, I did arts with a major in psych.”

“Well, I’m only cert four. I’d like to go to uni and finish off the degree.” That had been her original plan. She’d thought she could juggle part-time uni and a baby. She could’ve if the accident had never happened. Now she had to worry about the cost of finishing her degree, thanks to proposed changes. Another ripple. Was there any part of her life that was untouched?

“Money in the bank first?” He said with one eyebrow raised.

“Something like that. So tired of counting every dollar.” She hadn’t meant to be so honest, but he’d seen her car, and she was sitting on his. They were in the same boat, like it or not.

“Yeah.” He nodded as if he knew that feeling to the cent. “I can pay for the coffee.”

“No, that wasn’t a hint.” How mortifying. “I got the staff discount.”

He grinned. “How about I buy the next one?”

If she said maybe this time, he wouldn’t ask again. Saying yes was hard. No was safe and easy, but saying yes wouldn’t get easier unless she practised. She glanced up at Ed. It wouldn’t be hard to say yes.

A smile curved her lips. “Sure. That would be nice, but I won’t be here tomorrow as I don’t work weekends.”

“We could meet somewhere else.” That grin widened. Ed might look like an angel but there was a devil’s heart beating in his chest. “Do something.”

“Like what?” She forced herself to swallow down the panic that immediately sprung up. Coffee was easy but it sounded like he was talking about a date.

What would happen if Ed wanted to go out at night?

Would her parents be happy to look after Ethan if she was going out? Watching him while she worked was one thing…but dating? And that’s where this was heading. An actual date. Her stomach tightened and all her bravado disintegrated.

He shrugged. “What do you want to do?”

It had been so long since she’d done this. “What about lunch?” Something easy and with no pressure, yet where they could talk. She knew so little about him. Somewhere public.

“Pizza in Freo?”

She smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Why not.” She hadn’t been to Fremantle in ages. “We could maybe check out the markets afterwards.” She hadn’t done that since…since Miles. As she looked at Ed she realised it would be nice to go there with someone else and not follow it with a long session at a pub. She sipped her cooling coffee. “Got a place in mind?”

“No. Let’s meet at South and Collie. Say, twelve tomorrow?”

“Sounds good.” And she could leave Ethan with his other grandparents instead of staying. That was appealing. Sometimes being there was claustrophobic.

Ed didn’t seem to be in a hurry to take off. And while she should, she didn’t want to. The sun was warm and she’d been asked out on a date—not that either of them had used that word. That was good. Not dating, just assessing for future date potential. Had it ever been this complicated when she’d been at school? It had been too long. She’d gotten with Miles when she’d been sixteen. Six years of her life…she pushed away the shadows that crept forward and tried to steal the sun out of the day.

“So aside from surfing, what else do you do when you aren’t working?” Not that she had any cool hobbies she could talk about and she wasn’t ready to bare all.

“Bit of writing.” He paused and studied his coffee as though a fly had landed in it. “When I said I worked in the music industry, I wasn’t being entirely honest.”

Uh-oh. Goose flesh pricked up her arm. She held her breath waiting for him to continue.

“I’m in a band.”

Oh, she sighed. That wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. He hadn’t lied. He was in the music industry. The pointy, public end.

“I didn’t want to say anything before because...” he trailed off and looked at her.

She knew exactly why he hadn’t said anything. “Because sometimes women want to go out with you because of what you do.” Olivia finished for him.

“Yeah, they seem to think it’s glamorous.” He gave his car a friendly pat.

“I’m sure it will be eventually. Are you going to tell me the band’s name?” In her mind she was already starting to try and guess. Did she have any of his music on her smart phone? The idea was so…cool. And so not her. Which was another reason she shouldn’t go out with him. But if she was going to step out of her comfort zone, she might as well do it properly.

He looked at her for a moment as if considering.

She knew he didn’t really want to say, but he didn’t want to be rude either. “If I haven’t worked it out by lunch tomorrow, will you tell me?”

He grinned, obviously relieved. “Deal.”

“Clue?” Because she was going to try and find out.

“There’s four of us.”

Hmm. And he’d been touring over east this year, which meant his band must have had something out this year. That still left a lot of potential bands. Although she also knew that Western Australia was home and he’d suggested Freo for lunch. “Anything else?”

“No more clues.”

She knew what she was doing for the rest of the day. The internet would know all and she would find out who Ed was. “I don’t know your surname.”

“Ha ha. You’re tricky. I like that. I don’t know yours either. I can wait…” He checked his watch. “Twenty six hours.”

Okay, so tomorrow would be the real get to know you date. Which meant she should mention Ethan. Some things could be revealed later. At the moment she was enjoying what was happening and she didn’t want to scare him off. Although he was hardly suitable date material if he was always flitting off to the eastern states.

He may not be the kind of guy that she wanted in her son’s life. But he was someone that she could have a little fun with. The idea of dating was as exciting as it was scary but it would be nice to have something for herself.

She drained her coffee cup and stood. “Until tomorrow.”

He straightened so he was no longer leaning against the car. “Yeah. I look forward to it. Should we swap numbers?”

Olivia laughed. If he was making her wait, he could do some waiting. “Tomorrow.”

Curiosity had overtaken and as soon as Ethan was napping, Olivia had gone online to see if she could find Ed. It wasn’t hard to find him, even without knowing his surname or the name of the band. All she’d had to do was add Fremantle band to Ed and there Selling the Sun was, complete with pictures.

Olivia clicked on one. Ed stood next to a girl, Gemma Field, with bright red hair, who was daring the camera to try something. On the other side of her was Dan Clarke who was best described as too pretty—she had no doubts that he was breaking hearts all over the country. On Ed’s other side was Mike Peterson looking very tall, blond and serious.

Ed had his arms crossed, but he was almost smiling as if he didn’t take the whole thing too seriously. She already knew he did. And he had no other job to fall back on. He might be almost smiling but there was that look in his eyes that she recognised, as she’d seen it too often in hers recently.

A need for change, for something more than what was on offer. She’d felt it when he’d been talking too.

She knew she should stop there, now she knew who he was…but she couldn’t. It was one thing to hear Selling the Sun
’s
songs on the radio but another to actually go out to lunch with a rock star. That’s what he was, even if he hadn’t used that word.

He could have anyone he wanted.

He probably had. Plenty of women would throw themselves at him. It must be hard to resist the attention. Her nose wrinkled. This was a bad idea. She didn’t need the complications this would bring. Nor was he bring home and meet the family material. Olivia glanced at the time. Ethan would be up in a few minutes and the time she’d been supposed to be looking for work and writing her résumé had been sucked up by looking up Ed Vincent, front man of Selling the Sun.

Was it too late to cancel lunch?

That would be rude, plus she didn’t have his phone number. That was her fault.

It was lunch. Nothing more and it wasn’t like she had other plans.

She closed her eyes. She’d rather have lunch with Ed than talk about the past again with Miles’s parents. The idea of sitting in the stuffy, too warm living room, sipping tea and reliving her high school years made her want to gag. Sometimes she wanted to yell out that Miles was drunk and that all of this was his fault. He caused the accident. He killed himself.

But they knew that.

So she smiled and drank her tea that had been laced with fake sweetener instead of real sugar and agreed how much Ethan looked like his father. Olivia drew in a sharp breath and opened her eyes, her gaze landing on her naked finger. They’d notice she’d stopped wearing the ring. They’d want to know why. Her heart became a hard fist and she had to fight to breathe.

How could she tell them that for the first time in three years she was stepping out of the holding pattern? That she was leaving the shadow of the past to feel the sun on her skin again? It had felt good to bask in the glow of desire.

Things happen for a reason—if she’d had a dollar for every time she’d heard that, she wouldn’t need to look for a new job—but maybe there was some truth to the saying.

She’d been going through the motions of living, but she wanted to get out and live. On the other hand, it was too much change too fast. Her job and Ed and everything else were all tumbling together and she wanted to slam on the brakes and find her feet instead of racing on.

Olivia released a slow breath, the way she had so many times when she’d started to feel overwhelmed. Ed would lose interest when he saw the scars and learned about Ethan. She didn’t have to call off lunch or end what was going on because Ed would do that. All she had to do was be ready for the brush-off.

There was no way she was what Ed was looking for in a date or a summer fling or whatever they were doing. Until then she should enjoy what was happening. Isn’t this what she’d wanted when she took off the ring? A chance to see what was out there instead of hiding?

She glanced at his picture on the screen before closing the tab. She had to show up tomorrow. She
wanted
to show up tomorrow. It had been a long time since she’d been in a man’s arms and the idea was so tempting, but how honest did she want to be? How badly did she want this to be more than lunch?

The sun slanted through the window, warming Ed’s arm despite the AC blasting out the vents—he didn’t care how bad his car looked as long as the AC worked. There was nothing more miserable than jumping into a hot car in the middle of a WA summer and then having to sweat it out, opening the windows only let in a hot breeze that desiccated eyeballs in under five minutes.

He tilted the vents a touch more, not wanting arrive in Freo sweaty for his first real date with Olivia. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone on a date in daylight…or gone on a real date. While he wouldn’t admit it to anyone, there had been occasions where he’d hooked up with someone because it was easy and they were offering.

They all had—except for Gemma and possibly Dan. He didn’t know what had actually happened between Dan and Lisa, only that none of it had been good. It was nice to be doing something close to normal. That was the reason he was second guessing his decision to tell Olivia who he was. If he could’ve dodged the question for a little longer, he could’ve been just Ed for a little longer.

He parked his car in the brightly coloured multi-storey car park and paused in the air conditioning for a moment longer. Most of the time he didn’t want to be just Ed. He wanted more. He could feel it burning in his soul like a thirst he couldn’t quench.